Northview Stories

Kelly:
Tyler was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in early July of 2014. The kind of cancer he had was incredibly aggressive. We knew the odds weren't good. We were in the hospital a lot. He had a major surgery that October. In April of 2015 he went into remission for about 18 months. In March, it was back and this time, it was on his spine and it was not operable.

Tony:
I remember basically, you know, the moment that Kelly called me and shared the information. I remember the look on her face when she drove up the driveway. It's the moment in your mind that you think, am I going to outlive my child?

Kelly:
We were told that May that he had about two weeks to two months to live. That second diagnosis he just said, "I will give God all the glory, no matter what the outcome is."

Tony:
In his quiet time, he read first Thessalonians 5:16-18, which says rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. And that became his verse. He made a conscious decision and he lived his life by a verse. God really worked in his life and he used it for a platform to share Christ with other people. And so, his faith just grew immensely. His witness crossed all social economic boundaries, generations, gender, everything that comes with that. It's quite amazing. We would get letters from people that would say, "I was a believer when I was young, I became an atheist, and Tyler has restored my faith in Jesus. And I renewed my commitment to the Lord."

Kelly:
We just had story after story, after story like that. And it was so fascinating to me, the favor that he found, like God gave Tyler favor. He ended up living until January 1st of 2019. So he lived a lot longer than they told us he would. And so we got a lot of special time with him there at the end.

Tony:
About two weeks before Tyler passed away, I was lying in bed with him. And he said, "Dad," he said, "All I ever wanted to do was please you and Mom and glorify God with my life." And, what parent doesn't want to hear that?

Tyler:
I believe that the Lord has given me my cancer for a reason, and that He wants to be glorified through this. I don't believe there's any act any, any way that my cancer (indistinguishable). That peace has been hard to find in the last year, for sure. I always want to leave a legacy of what the Lord can do when you allow him to work in real life and when he's glorified through everything. There's always enough time in the day to take, to bring glory to God. We don't have time for the Lord to start making (indistinguishable). We don't know how many days we have. And no one does.